The following article by Socialist Party member Tony Mulhearn
appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post on 24 March commemorating the
struggle 20 years ago of socialists in the leadership of the Liverpool
Labour Party against the Thatcher government.

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Militant turned socialism into reality

Former president of Liverpool District Labour Party Tony Mulhearn
responds to the Daily Post's series on the Militant legacy of the 1980s.

LARRY NEILD'S welcome series on the legacy of the 47 surcharged
councillors unlike some of the lurid and distorted coverage of the past,
has attempted to provide a balance in assessing the events of 20 years
ago. But like all such assessments, it is like the curate's egg: good in
parts. It gives a picture of those great events, but not a fully
accurate one.

When asked by Henry Kissinger in 1972 what he thought the historical
impact of the 1789 French Revolution was, Chou En Lai, the Chinese
Premier and second to Mao Zedong, answered: "It's too soon to
tell."

However, we don't have to wait that long for a considered assessment
of the achievements of that much-maligned city council of 1983-87
because, fortunately, the achievements are still with us. The houses,
the sports centres, the parks, the nursery schools, the record of the
money clawed back from the Thatcher government, remains.

Liverpool Labour's years of impotence are a consequence of the
witch-hunt of socialists conducted by Kilfoyle, Kinnock and their
acolytes.

Transforming Labour's share of the vote in Liverpool from the highest
in history in 1983-87 to its lowest now is the legacy provided by New
Labour. We look forward with interest to see if the newly formed
District Labour Party is as representative, dynamic and democratic as
the Party they destroyed

To describe the 47's achievements as a "Militant Blight"
compared to the wrecking policies of right-wing Labour and the
Neo-Liberals is to make nonsense of the English language.

The positive features of Larry Neild's piece do recognise that the 49
(reduced to 47 as a result of the deaths of Peter Lloyd and Bill
Lafferty) inherited an appalling social and economic situation.

With a Liberal/Tory alliance ruling the city and a Thatcher
government ruling the country, 100,000 manufacturing jobs had been lost
on Merseyside in the four years prior to 1983.

The level of private investment had sunk to an all-time low. In
addition, assisted by the fiscal policies of the local Liberal/Tory
alliance, Thatcher had stolen £300 million from the city in rate
support grants and housing finance.

This nightmare scenario inherited by Labour makes nonsense of Michael
Parkinson's (professor of European Institute of Urban Affairs at
Liverpool JMU, who wrote the 1985 book Liverpool On The Brink)
hopelessly misguided and lofty assertion that Militant had scared off
investors.

Equally his notion that "it all started at the tail end of the
1970s" fails to understand the history of Labour in Liverpool,
which is a history of struggle reaching back to the 19th century. The
struggle against casual labour, against unemployment, against
sectarianism, against atrocious housing conditions is part and parcel of
life for those of us who were born and bred in this great city.

The ideas of socialism, that were made concrete reality by the 47,
had been Labour Party policy for decades. But unlike previous council
leaders, the 47, reflecting the aspirations of the Labour and trade
union movement and the needs of the city's working people, translated
that policy into action.

The reality is that the campaign initiated by the Liverpool 47
arrested the decline. For example, major construction companies and
banks placed ads in financial publications congratulating the council on
its campaign of achievement.

Michael Parkinson, echoing the rarefied corridors of academia,
buttressed by the propaganda of the Liberal council, then suggests that,
whilst there was an enemy in the 1980s (Thatcher's government), now
there isn't. Perhaps he hasn't noticed that one-third of all children on
Merseyside live in poverty, that Granby and Everton wards are top of the
poverty league, that the city still has the highest unemployment level
in the region, and that atrocious housing is still the norm for
thousands.

The much-vaunted "revival" of Liverpool has benefited those
who can afford to spend a couple hundred of thousand on one of the
ubiquitous penthouses that now colonise the city centre. But half the
city still suffers the same problems that have been a feature of
Liverpool life for decades.

Your series quoted Roy Gladden, one of the 47, as saying: "We
felt like the German people who woke up to find a storm trooper at the
end of the bed with a rifle in his hand".

To draw an analogy between our campaign and the Nazi coup in Germany
is a monstrous slur on all the brave men and women who had nothing
personal to gain from their efforts.

He insults the 47 further by describing them as voting fodder.
Doesn't he recall that he had every opportunity to voice his
disagreement with the DLP policy and to propose alternative policies?

Liverpool's current appearance of opulence owed to a substantial
degree to Euro funding attracted by its Objective 1 status. A feature of
our campaign was its international character. Liverpool's problems were
highlighted and occupied the centre of the world political stage. We
initiated the sitting up of a Merseyside European Committee. It was that
campaigning activity which was a vital factor in securing Objective 1
status and allowing the city to tap into the billions that are available
from Europe.

It is important now to nail the distortion that Labour in Liverpool
was hijacked by a small splinter group.

Militant supporters, who had many years of Labour party membership
between them and were an important part of the movement, are proud to
have been part of that leadership.

But that campaign was in preparation for decades with people like
Eric Heffer, Eddie Loyden, Pat Wall and others campaigning for the same
policies.

It enjoyed popular support, not only shown by mass meetings in St
George's Hall and demonstrations through the streets of Liverpool, but
also in the ballot box when Labour received the highest vote ever
recorded for local elections.

Militant supporters, with huge majorities, won and retained, for
example, Netherley, Valley, Speke, and St Mary's. Under the stewardship
of New Labour clones, these wards all fell to the Liberals. When we were
surcharged, every candidate who followed us stood on the programme of
the 47. It was printed on all the election material. The result - Labour
was returned with an overwhelming majority - a majority subsequently
squandered by New Labour.

To suggest that a small extreme group can hijack a popular movement
does stretch the boundaries of reality, although the New Labour clique
seems to have managed it quite effectively.

Finally, to those who argue that we fought the right cause in the
wrong way, it is incumbent on them to propose alternative policies that
did not include massive rate rises, rent rises, the sacking of council
workers and cuts in services.

For our part, we remain proud of our achievements and, faced with the
same situation, would make the same stand again

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TONY MULHEARN'S article has been endorsed by a number of the 47
including Paul Astbury, Jimmy Dillon, Alan Fogg, Jimmy Hackett, Frank
Mills, Tony Rimmer and Harry Smith. They revisit the issues on their
website: www.Liverpool47.org

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Read the definitive study of the 1983-87 struggle: Liverpool: A
City That Dared to Fight by Tony Mulhearn and Peter Taaffe. Buy
it by clicking here.